Restoring fire sovereignty on California Indian allotment lands

Abstract Public domain allotments in California are ecologically, culturally, and politically significant individual parcels of land held in trust by the federal government for California Indian people. Their political importance is rooted in the unfulfilled promises of the 18 treaties negotiated between the USA and California Indian nations in 1851–1852. When the Senate refused to ratify those treaties, it denied California Indians the sovereign right to protect their lands from federal and private expropriation. Today a patchwork of federal statutes, executive orders, and regulations define and control Native land ownership in California. Public domain allotments are part of this patchwork; beginning in 1887, the federal government set aside public domain allotments for Native people not living on reservations. At one time, public domain allotments in California comprised over 336,000 acres. Today, only about 17,000 acres remain. For descendants of allottees who are not members of federally recognized tribes, these lands serve as critical sites of political recognition and formal legal connection to the USA, and hubs of cultural continuity. Ecologically, allotments are vital landscapes that sustain culturally important plant communities, wildlife corridors, and function as climate refugia for species central to food, medicine, ceremony, and traditions. The reintroduction of mixed-severity fire is critical on allotments to maintain both ecological health and cultural practice. Yet current regulations governing burning are designed for tribal governments with administrative capacity, not for dispersed allottee families and individuals. Chronic Bureau of Indian Affairs understaffing further compounds these barriers, creating regulatory frameworks that do not align with Indigenous concepts of fire sovereignty. This paper analyzes the policy context shaping the return of fire to public domain allotments and identifies pathways to support restoration and resilience planning on Indian allotment lands.